Effect of Bagging Type on Reducing Pomegranate Fruit Disorders and Quality Improvement

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

 THE PRESENT investigation was carried out in a private farm …..located at Alexandria desert road, El-Behira Governorate, Egypt to study the effect of bagging type on reducing pomegranate fruit disorders and improving fruit quality during 2011 and 2012 seasons. The bagging treatments were, brown paper bag, white paper bag, prgmen bag, agrail white bag, agrail red bag, agrail blue bag and plastic bag. The treatments started at 21 days after fruit set and sustained till harvest time. The obtained results showed that, bagging fruits with prgmen bag increased fruit length, fruit diameter, grain weight percentage, fruit weight (g), yield/tree (kg), TSS %, total soluble sugars, vitamin C content and total anthocyanin content in fruit juice. While, the percentage of cracked fruits, sunburn fruits /tree and fruit mechanical damage were reduced as compared to the other treatments. On the other hand, bagged fruits with plastic bags increased peel weight percentage and total acidity percentage. Moreover, bagging with agrail blue bag had a significant effect on increasing values of lightness (L) .While, bagging with prgmen bag had a significant effect on higher values of lightness (L) and redness (a) compared to the other treatments. Generally, it can be recommended from this study that, bagging pomegranate fruits with prgmen bags was the best in reducing fruit disorders with improving fruit quality as well as increasing the net profit for farmer.

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